Over the next 2 weeks, many discussions took place between high-ranking officials. Not just in Eden but across the entire world.
For countries in a similar position to the Frostlands, they quickly cultivated the grasslands of the Underworld, because of the abundant mana the crops grew quickly but unlike the food in Eden, these crops did not provide EXP.
Large countries like the Empire quickly set up military bases in the Underworld and started to prepare to explore the unknown.
The Underworld is a dangerous place since the first floor of every dungeon merged together. Because of that, the Underworld can generate monsters that could spawn in any dungeon's first floors.
First-floor monsters aren't considered that dangerous because usually, a dungeon has a set type of monsters that appear and can be prepared for in advance. Adventurers would prepare antidotes to poisons or certain weapons depending on the predicted enemies that they would face.
But since any kinds of monsters can appear in random-sized groups from any direction, many countries have been unable to venture forth.
Xia had spent the last two weeks randomly adding in different biomes across the Underworld to provide some variety and scenery. He did this to kill time while waiting for his Grand Council to come up with plans.
To create the biomes Xia used his Divine skills. These skills don't use mana but instead, draw power from the Deities specialism.
For example, the Deity of oceans could only use Divine skills when near a large body of water, Xia can only use his Divine skills when inside or near a dungeon.
The Goddess put this rule in place on Divine skills to stop Deitys fighting each other over territories. Deities are much stronger on their home turf and significantly weaker on other Deities areas. There are around 30 Deities already in the world who came here from earth or other planets before Xia, he is the newest one.
[Underworld Stats]
[Total Dungeons linked: 1097]
[Dungeon Size: 500,000,000km²]
[Total monsters in the Underworld: 10,534,763,982]
[Number of permanent settlements: 12]
[Total sentient lifeforms living in the Underworld: 14,536]
[24 hours have passed! Daily deity store credits awarded!]
[Credits awarded daily are equal to the sentient population of the Underworld]
[14,536 credits awarded…]
[Shop credits: 62,806,782 -> 62,821,318]
From the Underworld's stats Xia could tell that around 11 other countries had set up some kind of permanent settlement within the Underworld. Since the population had risen he had been gaining a few more points.
The only other notable change was that a billion new monsters had been spawned over the last two weeks. This means that for every square kilometer there are on average 21 monsters. This is a disturbingly high number.
This is why more settlements hadn't been made. Only countries like the Frostlands who greatly needed to establish a foothold into the Underworld for food were willing to expend the effort.
The dungeon is also somewhat sentient. Although Xia can control it directly and order it through his will most of the time it's on 'autopilot' and therefore it continued doing what every dungeon is designed to do… kill intruders.
Therefore the monsters were never spawned randomly and the monsters rarely fought by themselves. Instead, the dungeon favored spawning a large group of monsters near groups of humans and attacking them with a small-scale 'beast surge'.
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Over the last two weeks, Eden had expanded in size. It now consisted of multiple islands. The Grand Council decided that Eden would become very popular in the future and would quickly be overcrowded with tourists and playboys.
The solution was to break Eden up into different sectors and place them on separate floating islands to keep everyone happy.
The largest of the islands which is 20km² contains the large market square, a Warp Gate to the surface, the town hall, inn's and also restaurants. This is deemed the merchant island and therefore focuses on trade, the merchants guild can also be found here.
All the other islands can be accessed from this main island with bridges. There are also floating lakes with fish and waterfalls surrounding the bridges. These were added after some residents complained of being scared of heights.
The next biggest island is the residential island. Only people with blue cards can walk across the bridge. A special array will activate and block anyone who doesn't qualify to cross. This was also implemented on the other bridges.
Thanks to this addition, residents said they felt much safer since all the blue card holders know each other and have a deep sense of trust. Combined with the ability to set up a barrier around their houses and summon undead for protection.
Due to the amazing security, 0% crime rate, 0% chance of dying to a monster surge, and exp provided through eating. The residents of Eden enjoyed an even greater quality of life than billionaires on earth.
The average life expectancy of an Eden resident excluding Alice and Xia is estimated to be around 200 years.
The people who moved here months ago from Eden were previously low-skilled workers from the Frostlands. But because of the peaceful lifestyle and gaining exp from food, they all started leveling up other classes.
Classes can give people greater skills in their area of expertise. If someone had a class like "Cook" their food would taste better the higher their level. Although classes like "Cook" can level through simply cooking, this is a very slow process, the fastest way is still to kill monsters.
A normal person with their main class being "Cook" wouldn't go out and hunt monsters with no combat skills so their levels were usually low. Even cooks in the royal palaces would be around level 25 at most.
However in Eden, one can level up by eating. This caused an interesting phenomenon. All these previously low-skilled people with weak classes like Cook, Seamstress, Blacksmith, Bartender all became very high level for non-combat classes.
Thanks to this rise in levels everyone in Eden became highly skilled and began making luxury products to gift each other. Also, being higher levels and investing into the constitution stat, everyone's bodies had improved. The men were more muscular and healthy, while the women were more dazzling with soft skin and better curves.
These people all used to look like starved villages or bandits but soon turned into noble and dignified looking men and women.
They all wore exquisite clothes made out of the finest materials provided by Xia and created by high leveled Seamstresses.
The economy of Eden was a trade-based economy. A Seamstress would trade a newly designed and made suit for a new sword from a blacksmith, there was no need for currency.
George would head over to eat at restaurants for lunch but then would provide that restaurant owner with a drink and gossip in the evening. One could prove their number of friendships and status within Eden by how many different high-class items they owned.
Anyways after the merchant and then the residential island the next biggest would be the golden island. This one was half the size of the entire residential district but only had around 20 mansions on it. These mansions all had massive gardens with thousands of beautiful flowers and rare fish swimming in the ponds.
The Golden island is home to the elite of Eden. The Grand council and their families lived here. The ex Duke of Eshnar, David lives in a 20 room mansion with his wife and butler. Calvin his son still lives in the magic tower. They were all upgraded to black cards as well since only black card and gold card members can step foot on the gold island.
Davids's wife, Lily who originally was denied a blue card was over the moon when she was promoted to a black card. Her clout within Eden skyrocketed overnight and many of the other residents sent her gifts. After living in Eden for a while she had completely forgotten her noble life in Eshnar and treated anywhere other than Eden as low-class trash.
The gold island also has a bridge made of solid gold which leads towards a floating castle, this bridge also helped to give it the name 'gold island'. This massive marble castle isn't built upon any land and instead just floats there. The castle is Xia's home, although he has no need for one, its main purpose is to hold meetings between the Grand Council members.
The fourth and final island is the entertainment island. It has a colossal-sized casino and auction house. There are also clubs, bars, and brothels here. A theater is also planned to be built in the future.
The merchant's island will be very busy in the future since Eden takes no tax on anything. Many merchants will also wish to be residents of Eden for this reason of it being a tax haven.
Eden will have some ways to make money though. Most of the entertainment island is owned by Xia so the money made from the casino for example will go straight into his pocket.
Although he has very little needed for money, Xia thought he may need some in the future to buy things he can't create or if he wants something but doesn't have a Deity shop credits left.
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Leon could only smile wearily as he walked over from his massive but lonely mansion towards the castle. He hadn't been able to contact his family members yet so was all alone. Luna would often come over for tea or to join him for diner as she also felt the same way.
Despite being put in a high position Leon had never worked so hard in his life. Xia wanted them to come up with a working model for a city that would house millions from around the world. It was a near-impossible task!
Leon could only rub his sleepy eyes and prepare himself for another 18-hour workday. Leon could only hope that once this city was built he could lay back and relax with his family while enjoying his high and lofty position in society.